Traveling North

Me and Lee Anne took September 18th to the 24th off from work to visit my grandparents who live in Northern Ontario. Slightly awkward timing, because it ran from a Wednesday to a Tuesday. Not a clean week, but we had to do it that way because I was teaching Safe Managment on the Monday and Tuesday, and Lee-Anne couldn't get time past the 24th.

When I was a kid, we spent most of our Christmases and summers during blueberry season at my grandparents'. In adult life, visits became much more irregular. The last time I'd been up was so I could practice for my G2 driver's license with my grandfather. Well, I never got around to that, so I got to practice some more this time as well.

There used to be a train that went up there, but it was put on suspension, leaving a bus as the only option. For some reason, this proved to be a psychological deterrant and it was only after my mother and aunt visited a few months prior that it felt like a viable method.

I don't know why I let the bus scare me so much. I take public transit regularly, frequently using it to travel between cities. In one instance, I bused through Guelph, Toronto, Buffalo, Syracuse, New York and Washington DC. I got to watch the sun set and rise and move through countries. The Northland Bus should not have been so intimidating.

It did cross my mind that when my mom visited, her house burned down while she was away. So I hoped there wasn't some kind of curse that would make it happen again. The silver lining was that because she's living with us now due to the fallout of that event, we had someone to watch the cats. Even directly after learning about the fire, I grimly mentioned that.

I associate these smaller, Northern communities as being less modern, like a step back in time. Due in part to size, as well as the fact it had been long enough that my memories were an actual step back in time. So it was kind of eerie to see that the go-to way of presenting bus fare was by showing tickets presented on smartphones. Last time I was up, I didn't even have a cell phone. They existed back then, but it wasn't as weird not to have one. It doesn't feel that long ago that I was taking the Greyhound bus between Kitchener and Guelph, and I always used a paper ticket bought in-person. I had the option of buying and printing at home, but I was never that organized.

Also, it's a weird sensation seeing that all these little settlements have been pretty thoroughly mapped out by Pokemon Go. I got my platinum badge for unique Pokestops it was so extensive. I couldn't even win a Pokemon Showcase it was so active. I like that an effort has been made to make sure people in these more remote locations can play, but the game feels at odds with my experience of this region. The North Bay bus terminal was a Pokemon gym, and the community is still so enduringly disappointed with the suspension of their train service that its description complains about it.

We had a layover there and stopped in the mall next door. I was wondering if it would be a cultural experience, but pretty well every store was something I could find at home. Food court had A&W, Orange Julious, Dairy Queen, and Tim Horton's. There was a Roots clothing outlet. The jewellery was Michael Hill. There was a Carter's Babies and Kids. They had a Best Buy and a Wal Mart. I may as well have been in Kitchener.

Overall the trip was about 9 hours over 2 buses. Not too much worse than going by car as I remembered it. We cut time off though, by staying at Lee-Anne's parents place the night before.